The Best CPU Coolers For Your Money: Summer 2011

The Scythe Big Shuriken, one of the recommended low-profile CPU Coolers.

Three class of CPU Coolers:

In “The Best CPU Coolers For Your Money” article, we recommend to to you three class of CPU Coolers:

The most effective CPU Coolers for your money

The best low-profile CPU Coolers

The best silent (passive) CPU Cooler

The Best CPU Coolers for your money?

By that, I mean the coolers that offer the either the best performance and/or the least noise in their price range. Why would you want that, you ask?

Because you want the best bang for the buck, because you want the best CPU Coolers for your needs, at the best possible price.

If you have the time… but who does in this crazy world?
If you have the time, reading detailed CPU Coolers reviews and specs are a lot of fun. However, most of us don’t have the time to do the research and just want the answers. In other words, what you want to know is what is the CPU Coolers for your needs, within your budget.

So if you don’t have the time to do the research, or just don’t care to do it, don’t worry. We’ll come to your help with this guide of the best CPU Coolers for your money.

Keep in mind:

I’ll use this opportunity to remind you that this article is only a guideline for the prices we’ve seen on July 18th 2011. You’re letting yourself down if you’re not looking for deals when you decide to purchase.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you read this list:

This list is based on the best U.S. prices from Newegg and/or Amazon. Prices and availability change everyday. I can’t keep up with accurate pricing everyday, but I can suggest to you great CPU Coolers that you won’t regret buying at the price ranges that I list.

All prices are based on new CPU Coolers prices, no used or open box are listed; they might be a good deal, but they come with trade offs, such as limited return policy, limited warranty, etc.

Each CPU Cooler will perform more or less well depending on your personal PC factors, such as the airflow in your case and your components.

Remember: How you apply the thermal paste can make or break the performance of your CPU Cooler. If your CPU temperatures seem abnormally high considering your CPU Cooler, consider re-seating your CPU Cooler. The best thermal paste is a properly applied one.

The Best CPU Coolers, performance wise:

Recommended for: 95W or lower TDP CPUs. Inexpensive replacement for stock cooler that offer better cooling performance and is more silent. Good for low or moderate overclock.

Dimensions: 159.5mm x 124.6mm x 81.2mm (L x W x H)

Details:3x8mm “direct contact” copper heatpipes, 1x120mm fan.

The Corsair A50 is the new budget king. It seems as if this cooler performs as well as, if not better than, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus while being more silent. The Hyper 212 has also seemed to have steadily climbed in price, which no longer makes it economical.

This is a solid step up from the (often very poor) stock cooler. You’re not going to get great temperatures, but it’s a significant improvement over the stock cooler.

Unless you are doing very intense overclocking or overclocking a 100W+ CPU, this should be fine.

This cooler uses “direct contact” heatpipes, which means there’s going to be extra gaps in the base. Just use a bit more thermal paste.

Not only is it cooler than the Zalman, but it’s also about the same price, making it a better value.

For the price, it offers great cooling, nearly as good as the best. Unless you want complete silence or very extreme overclocking, this cooler should hold very well, as going beyond this point results in diminishing returns in terms of CPU temperatures.

I highly recommend this for anyone who wants great performance but doesn’t want to go all-out on a cooler.

This cooler uses “direct contact” heatpipes, which means there’s going to be extra gaps in the base. Just use a bit more thermal paste.

Performance is nearly identical to the Silver Arrow (a fraction of a degree less in most cases). However, the NH-D14 has more RAM clearance due to it’s asymmetrical design.

It’s also known to outperform the Silver Arrow in a few oddball cases where you have a very extreme overclock (when your going into the 90C or above range at load), which you shouldn’t be doing anyway.

Still not going to work with your insanely tall Corsair Vengeance though.

It is regarded as the best by most and also, it doesn’t need a cure time, its performance is consistant, it’s easy to clean up and it’s specifically engineered for the specific socket that you use.

Note: The CPU Coolers that I recommend already include thermal compound, so you technically don’t need to buy any. However, the Indigo Xtreme is recommended if you demand the highest performance. It is pricey, so getting a better cooler might be more advisable. If you desire a more traditional thermal paste, most CPU coolers come with high end pastes, or you can get Arctic Cooling MX-4, an excellent thermal paste.

Conclusion

We hope that you liked this updated version of “The CPU Coolers For Your Money”.

There’s always place for improvement, so we invite you to leave your feedback, questions and suggestions to Brian and me right below in the comments section.

Join us on our forums!

You can join us on our forums to discuss with everyone else the build that you’re planning to build, ask your questions and join our helpful community!

Join our Facebook Page!
If you’re more of a Facebook fan, we also have an Hardware Revolution Facebook fan page, which you can “like” to get updates only when we publish new articles. We won’t spam your newsfeed with updates every 5 minutes, we only post an update only when we publish new articles or to ask your feedback.

Automatically receive our future articles for free via RSS or Email:
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this article, feel free to leave a comment below and remember, you can get our future articles, such as the upcoming Workstation Builds, Best Of articles, updates to the Gaming PC Guides, automatically and for free via RSS or Email.

That way, you never have to check the site for updates again because you get the latest and greatest articles delivered automatically in your RSS reader or Email inbox around 7PM EST, every day that I publish an article.

About The Author

HR Founder - Computer expert with over 16 years of experience in building, fixing and modifying PCs.
Over the years, I’ve developed a passion for PC hardware and now I enjoy helping others build their own PCs!
In April 2008, I launched Hardware Revolution and ... Read more at my about page

Did you enjoy this article? Support us by making a donation!

You can support Hardware Revolution by making a donation, by clicking here or using the button.

This website is my job, I must pay for staff and hosting, as well as cover my living costs.

How much should you donate? Think about how much money and time that I've helped you save. Offer me a coffee, a beer, a meal, an evening out, etc. Donate what you can. Anything is appreciated.